


Social Distancing

by doctorhelena



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Minor Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Quarantine, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25494208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctorhelena/pseuds/doctorhelena
Summary: Peggy and Steve try to hide the fact that they are quarantined together in a very small apartment.
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers
Comments: 22
Kudos: 178
Collections: Steggy Week





	Social Distancing

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for Steggy Week 2020, Day 8 (Quarantine).
> 
> (In this AU, Peggy's presence has somehow prevented both Civil War and the Snap. I'm sure she could do it! :)

**Day 1:**

_“… and in other news, even the Avengers will be working from home for the foreseeable future. In a press conference held this morning on the StarkVirtual conferencing app, team members assured reporters that they will be able to continue to monitor and respond to any major threats during this time.”_

_\- WHiH World News_

“It shouldn’t be too difficult,” said Peggy. “I’ll take the sitting room, you take the bedroom. It worked perfectly well this morning - we’ll simply continue as we’ve begun.” She took a bite of her sandwich.

Steve glanced around at their tiny apartment. “Yeah, I guess you’re probably right.” 

“Of course I am,” she said, her mouth full. “Just stay out of the sitting room when I’m on a call, and for God’s sake, don’t open your compass in plain view of a camera.” She cut her eyes at him reproachfully.

He grinned at her, then stood up and stretched. “Okay. And you need to stay out of the bedroom until I give the all-clear. I’ve got a video call with General Friedman in ten minutes.”

“Once that’s done, would you care to join me in my office for the afternoon?” Peggy asked, gesturing grandly at the living room where her laptop sat open on the coffee table. “I suppose we could collaborate online, but it seems rather silly when it’s just the two of us.”

He grinned at her. “Sure you don’t want to join me in my office?”

She raised an eyebrow. “We have work do to, Steven.”

\-----  
**Day 7:**

_“… Black Widow likely spoke for the team as a whole when she shrugged off questions about her living room decor going viral. “It’s really not my highest priority at the moment.” The public, however, has been fascinated by the unprecedented glimpses of the Avengers’ personal homes. “You never think of, say, Captain America just kicking back at the end of the day and watching TV,” says Amy O’Brian, a professor of media studies at Grayburn College in New York City. “Now, you suddenly realize that, of course, these people don’t just live in a quinjet, ready for action. In fact, Iron Man aside, they have pretty regular-looking bedrooms and living rooms. And they’re stuck in them, just like the rest of us.”_

_\- WHiH World News_

“All I’m saying,” said Steve, “is that maybe if I went down there with my shield, stood a safe distance away, and just kind of glared at people who had carts full of toilet paper and hand sanitizer, I could - ”

Peggy scoffed. “You could what? Be shown on the evening news breaking quarantine?”

Thanks to Dr. Erskine’s serum neither Steve nor Peggy were likely to get sick but, since nobody was sure yet how the virus might mutate with their supersoldier DNA, neither of them was allowed to leave their apartment for the forseeable future.

“I don’t know!” Steve flung his arms up in the air, then sighed. “Sam’s probably right, I need to stop checking the news so often. I just wish there was more we could do to help.” 

“I know,” said Peggy. She looked as frustrated as he felt. “I wish our talents lay in more useful directions. Although I suppose even if they did, we wouldn’t be able to leave the flat.” 

Steve put his phone in his pocket. “It kind of feels like being stuck on the USO circuit all over again,” he said. “Can’t do anything actually useful. I guess at least this time I’m not wearing tights.”

Peggy’s dimples showed. “Well, there’s always YouTube. You could deliver stern lectures about hoarding. Or perhaps you could create Captain America’s Quarantine Challenge.” She mimed sitting backwards on a chair, one arm leaning across the back. “So. You can’t leave your house.”

Steve sighed heavily, and she laughed out loud. “That might not be a terrible idea, actually, although perhaps with a slightly better script.” She looked thoughtful for a moment, then turned her attention back to the matter at hand. “And in the meantime, I think we both need to develop some new hobbies.” She tilted her head at him. “Fancy a game of chess?”

Steve raised his eyebrows. “Peggy, we both know Dum Dum burned your chess set that night in Lithuania for a reason.”

“That was him?” she looked genuinely startled. “Then why did Morita look so guilty? ” 

Steve grinned at her. “It might have been a group effort. I was the distraction.”

“Well,” she said, “you were very distracting, I have to admit. It was probably more than a fair trade.”

Steve felt his ears heat up a little, and cleared his throat. “Anyway, we don’t own a chess set.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “For good reason.”

“We’ll play online,” said Peggy, reasonably. “The computer doesn’t allow cheating. And,” she added watching him through her eyelashes, “perhaps we could make it a little more interesting.” She reached up and undid the top two buttons of her shirt.

Steve blinked. “Peggy, are - are you suggesting we play _strip_ chess?”

“Yes,” she said, serenely. “Winner takes all.”

Steve grinned. “Okay, fine. You’re on.”

\-----

“Check and mate!” said Peggy, triumphantly, tapping out her final move. “Although,” she added, somewhat breathlessly, “as you haven't had a stitch on you for the last three turns, I believe I’ve won either way.” She herself was still wearing a single sock as well as her bra, although she’d forfeited the rest of her underwear several turns ago in a wildly successful attempt by Steve to distract her from a sneak attack on one of her rooks.

“You had more clothes on to start with,” Steve argued, although he had to admit he’d really lost all interest in the game right around the time he’d captured that rook. “So - I think I - Peggy!”

Peggy smiled slowly. “If you’d like to dispute the results of the game, I can stop.” 

“No,” he said firmly, pulling her back onto the couch with him as he reached for the clasp of her bra. “But next time, Captain Britain, we will have _rules_.”

“You have to admit, though,” she said against his ear, “that you’re having fun.”

\-----  
**Day 14:**

 _“.... hope out of Wakanda, where an international team has reported promising progress towards a potential treatment and hopefully, eventually, a vaccine. In the meantime, things have been quiet for the Avengers, at a time when it seems that even international criminals and aliens have been practicing social distancing._ _One Avenger however, made the news this week: Black Widow’s cat, who made an unscheduled appearance during the team’s weekly press conference Monday and promptly began trending on Twitter.”_

_\- WHiH World News_

“I never actually thought I’d miss all those years of tramping through the mud of the European theatre,” said Peggy plaintively, pulling off her tank top and throwing it onto the bed as she came through the door. She looked sweaty and a little forlorn.

Steve looked up from his sketching. “I know. All that time we spent wishing we were somewhere warm and dry, with walls and a roof.”

“Well, I’ve certainly had enough of the indoors for the time being,” said Peggy, ruefully, as she tugged off her leggings. “Bloody Nora, I’m tired of doing calisthenics in the sitting room instead of being out there doing something useful.”

Steve turned his chair all the way around as she reached for the clasp of her sports bra. “Just to let you know, I’ve got a call with Nat in 15 minutes.”

Peggy shrugged, discarding the bra on top of the rest of her workout clothes and then stepping out of her underwear. “She already knows we live together. And she’s seen me naked plenty of times in the locker room.” She tossed the bundle of clothing into the hamper without looking and flopped down onto the bed.

Steve frowned. “Peggy - ”

Peggy sighed. “Don’t worry, I’ll leave before I give Natasha a show.”

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, although she didn’t move.

Steve reached over and squeezed her knee. “It sounds like the team in Wakanda might have something - not a vaccine, but a treatment. I heard it straight from Bruce - he and Tony have been collaborating remotely. Might not be too much longer, in the grand scheme of things.”

Peggy nodded. “I know.” She made a face. “I just - Tony and Bruce are working with the Wakandan team. Pepper has been busy donating ridiculous sums of money and repurposing Stark Industries equipment to make medical supplies. Sam’s volunteering his counselling services. But you and I are just - ”

Steve squeezed her knee again. “I know it feels like it, but we're not doing nothing. We’re standing by. If there’s a real emergency, we’ll risk those suits Tony made for us, but in the meantime - ” he got up and laid down on the bed beside her, their faces very close together. “Remember the other day, when I said I felt like I was back on the USO circuit?” 

Peggy nodded, and he reached out to tuck a sweaty curl behind her ear. “Well,” he said, “I’ve been thinking about that. The USO sure as hell wasn’t what I wanted to be doing, and it sure didn’t feel like I was doing much. But you know, bond sales really did take a ten percent bump in every state I visited. And people loved to watch the show. Little kids whose dads were overseas, women who were worried they might never see their husbands and brothers and sons again, soldiers about to ship out. Thousands of ordinary people, who were being called on to make sacrifices for a bigger cause. It seemed silly, and it was, but it wasn’t nothing. We did help.” 

Peggy inclined her head slightly. “You’re right, of course. But darling, we’re not even entertaining anybody, other than that group of people who are unaccountably interested in our home decor and Natasha’s cat. We’re just sitting on our arses, waiting to be useful.”

He nudged her arm. “A lot of people look up to you, Captain Britain. To us, to all of the Avengers. We’re leading by example. We’re staying home to protect everyone else, and maybe by doing that, we can encourage others to do it too. And if people want to start a fan club for Nat’s cat and spend their time figuring out where we bought our furniture, well, maybe that’s what they need right now.”

Peggy smiled at him. “You’re terribly persuasive when you make those speeches, you know.”

Steve leaned in to kiss her. “Good.”

“You have that meeting with Natasha,” she reminded him, after a while.

He grinned at her, but left his hands where they were. “I’ll tell her you barged into my office and started taking off your clothes. She’ll understand.”

Peggy poked him. “Have your meeting, Rogers. I’m going to go have a shower.” She rolled off the far side of the bed, looking back to smile as she noticed where his eyes had wandered.

“Although perhaps,” she added on her way out the door, “I’ll let you undress me again once you’re through.”

\-----  
**Day 21:**

_“... and move over Liho the Cat, another Avenger is trending on Twitter today after Captain America forgot to make his bed, which was clearly visible behind him during the Avengers’ weekly press conference this afternoon. Online speculation went viral after it was pointed out that, despite the fact that he’s in strict quarantine, both sides of the bed appear to have been slept in.”_

_\- WHiH World News_

Natasha gave them a slyly amused look through the laptop screen. “Do you two have no shame? That meeting was at two in the afternoon!”

“Pardon me?” asked Peggy, glancing at Steve, but he shrugged back at her, equally in the dark.

Natasha was still smirking at them. “You haven’t heard? Check pretty much any celebrity gossip site. I’ll wait.”

Peggy took out her phone, tapped at it for a moment, then stared at the screen with wide eyes. “Shit!” Steve leaned over to look and felt his face turn hot. Oh crap.

Natasha grinned. “Took an extra long lunch break today, huh?” She smiled even more widely at their expressions, then took pity on them. “It could be worse. At least there isn’t anything in the background that obviously points to Peggy. I checked for you. You're welcome.”

“I suppose that’s true,” said Peggy slowly, scrolling through her phone. “Good God, don’t people have anything better to - ” she broke off and sighed. “No, I suppose a lot of people really don’t just now, do they?”

Steve was scrolling through his own phone now, his ears still hot. “Oh God, Buzzfeed’s got a list of the top 15 people I might be secretly sleeping with. I haven’t even met half of them! Why on earth would I - ”

Peggy leaned over to look at his screen. “More to the point,” she said, indignantly, “why am I so close to the bottom of the list? And - why are both Thor and Natasha ahead of me?” Steve suddenly had a vivid flashback to ducking behind his shield in Howard’s lab.

“I don’t know!” he protested. “I didn’t write it!”

“You do realize,” said Natasha, the corner of her mouth twitching a little, “that you don’t actually want to be on the list at all, Carter. Or, at least, I thought that was what you two were going for.”

Peggy sighed. “You’re right, the fact that I’m considered only the thirteenth most likely person to be sharing a bed with Steve means that we’ve actually done a rather decent job of keeping our private life private.” She didn’t look all that happy about it.

Natasha cleared her throat, still looking amused. “Well, I’ll let you two go ponder your feelings about that. Just thought I should let you know Steve’s love life was trending.” She leaned forward and closed the connection.

Steve closed his eyes. “God Peggy, I’m so sorry. I should have noticed - ”

Peggy glared at him. “We’ve been so careful with everything, and you missed _an entire unmade bed_? Bloody Nora, Steve!”

“In my defense,” he said, “I’d already made the bed once today. And you were the one who said we had time before the meeting.”

“Yes well,” she said, still somewhat crossly, “I didn’t realize you were going to insist upon being so ridiculously thorough.” They stared at each other, and then she ducked her head, smiling a little. “Oh, fine, I suppose I’m a little to blame.” 

Neither of them said anything for a while. “We’ll just have to be even more careful than before, I suppose,” Peggy said, finally. “Perhaps it will eventually blow over.”

Steve nodded, watching her. “When you saw that Buzzfeed list with Nat and Thor,” he said, cautiously, “you seemed a bit - ”

“I’m fine,” said Peggy, although she didn’t quite meet his eye. “Natasha’s right, it’s actually good that I’m a long-shot in the public imagination. It's what we wanted.” She straightened her shoulders and put down her phone. “And, at any rate, there isn’t anything we can do about it right now, and we have far more important things to be concerned with. I believe it’s past time for dinner.” 

Steve ran his thumb down her cheek, from ear to chin. “Despite what Buzzfeed thinks, you’re the only one on my list, Peg. Always have been. You know that, don’t you?”

She smiled. “Yes, I know.” He leaned down to kiss her, and they both laughed as her stomach rumbled loudly. “Perhaps you can take up cooking as a hobby,” she said. “I expect your mystery lover would be terribly impressed.”

“Would she?” he asked. “Or does she just want me to learn to cook so she doesn’t have to?”

Peggy slid her hands up inside his shirt. “Perhaps her talents lie in other directions.”

\-----  
**Day 28:**

_“... announced that the Avengers have officially teamed up with the WHO and public health authorities around the world for a series of public service announcements related to the pandemic. Avengers spokesperson Maria Hill also indirectly addressed speculation about Captain America’s love life, assuring reporters that there has been no breach of quarantine and requesting that they respect the team’s privacy regarding their personal lives.”_

_\- WHiH World News_

“Well, it certainly smells good,” said Peggy, peering through the glass door of the oven. “And it looks like it’s risen.” 

Steve had to admit, it did smell pretty good. “Don’t open the oven door,” he warned her. “It still has ten more minutes.” 

“I’m not going to open it,” she said, indignantly. “What do you take me for, a child?”

He grinned at her. “I take you for a person who’s always stealing my food.” As she stood up, he reached over and snagged her hand, pulling her in closer to where he was sitting at the kitchen table.

“Steve!” she protested as he slid his other arm around her and pulled her right into his lap, but she didn’t resist.

“You know,” he said, after a moment, “avoiding reporters who want to talk about my love life aside, we’ve never had this much time together without some kind of urgent mission or another. It’s - nice. I mean, it still drives me crazy that we can’t do more to help, but now that I’ve mostly accepted that we’re doing everything we can - ”

Peggy nodded against his neck. “It is nice.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Maybe, once this is over, we should take more vacations. Or, at least more weekends.”

“I’d like that,” she said, slowly, then sighed. “Although, if the current level of interest in your love life continues, you may be followed by curious paparazzi at all times, which might put something of a damper on things.”

Steve rested his cheek on the top of her head. “Luckily, I’m secretly sleeping with a pretty fantastic spy.” 

\-----  
**Day 38:**

_“...and speculation about Captain America’s love life is trending again today, after eagle-eyed fans pointed out that a distinctive-looking blanket seen crumpled at the foot of his bed last week seems to have migrated to fellow Avenger Captain Britain’s sofa, despite the fact that both supersoldiers are under full quarantine, confined to their homes at all times barring an Avengers-level threat.”_

_\- WHiH World News_

“Okay, so let’s think it through,” said Pepper, calmly. Although she was clearly in pajamas, her manner was as reassuringly competent as always. “So, first of all, I know you have two of them, but it _is_ a very distinctive pattern. It really does look like it’s the same one.” 

Steve reddened slightly. “It actually is the same one. I moved it from the bed to the couch. The other one’s in a box in the closet.”

Peggy gave him a dirty look. “Where I’d tucked it away at the start of all this, in order to avoid this very situation. And also because they are ridiculous.”

“Rude!” protested Tony. He flopped down next to Pepper, slid his arm around her, and kissed her loudly on the cheek. “And also, you both wore them at Christmas, I have pictures.”

Peggy sighed. “Yes well, Christmas is a day for wearing the ridiculous matching fleece caftans one receives as gifts from one’s friends.”

“Snuggies, Carter. They’re called Snuggies,” said Tony. He raised his eyebrows. “And I have to say, I thought you’d both be a lot more careful after AfternoonSexGate. Are you two doing a lot of day drinking? Do I need to stage an intervention?”

Peggy glared at him. “You know perfectly well that alcohol has no effect on either of us, Stark, although God knows I wish it did sometimes. And I - I don’t know how I missed it,” she admitted, more quietly.

Tony pushed himself up off the couch, disappearing from view. “You want popcorn for the movie?” he asked Pepper. “I’m going to get some popcorn.” There was a shuffling noise, and he poked his head back into camera range. “By the way, here’s my theory: you two keep messing up on purpose because deep down, you secretly want everyone to know you’re banging each other. Want butter?” he asked Pepper. She shook her head and he disappeared from view again.

Peggy’s mouth dropped open, but she didn’t say anything. Steve, watching her, suddenly wasn’t entirely sure Tony was wrong. That Buzzfeed list had bothered her a lot more than she’d been willing to admit.

Pepper cleared her throat. “ _Anyway_ , the important question isn’t how it happened, it’s what to do now.” She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “So, first of all, issuing a public denial always looks suspicious. And honestly, even though you can prove there are two of them, in the end you still have matching Snuggies.”

“I suppose that is rather damning,” said Peggy. “Unless the whole team had them,” she added, slowly.

Steve looked at her. “So, you think we should rush-order a bunch of them to everyone else, and then what - all wear them at next week’s press conference?” He pictured it, suddenly, and couldn’t stop his lips from twitching.

Peggy shrugged, but the corners of her mouth were turning slightly upwards too.

“I - ” Pepper bit her lip. “So, I know you wanted to keep your private lives private, and you were trying not to give anyone any extra leverage over either of you, but honestly, I think that train has probably left the station.” She shrugged. “It’s out there. You’ll most likely get less attention in the end if you just come out and admit it now.”

Tony popped his head back in. “We all know how much it gets you two off to pretend not to like each other in public, but you’ll just have to figure out a different way to spice things up.”

“We don’t pretend not to like each other,” said Steve. “We just - ”

Pepper’s lips twitched. “You kind of do. You don’t go over the top about it, and I mean, honestly, given the way you look at each other the rest of the time it’s probably your best bet, but - ”

Peggy’s face was a little red, and Steve felt his ears getting a bit hot too. “All right,” Peggy said. “I suppose we’ll have to come clean.” She sighed. “I was afraid there wasn’t going to be a way around it.”

Pepper nodded. “Just - sleep on it. And let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.” She rolled her eyes slightly in what Steve assumed must be Tony’s direction. “I may have a little bit of experience dealing with excessive media interest in my love life.” 

Peggy nodded too, then thanked Pepper, leaned forward, and closed the connection. “I think she’s right,” she said, slowly. “At this point, there’s very little to be gained by pretending that we don’t - that we don’t mean a great deal more to each other than we’ve previously admitted to in public.”

Steve nodded. “Yeah.” He squeezed her shoulder, then left his hand there and began to dig into a tense muscle with his thumb. “But you know, the odds of anyone successfully hurting one of us to get at the other were always pretty low,” he said. “We’re both really hard to surprise in a fight.”

She smiled. “I suppose you’re right. Even before Dr. Erskine, I wouldn’t have bet against us.”

“And things have changed since the war,” he pointed out, still working out the knot in her shoulder. “Nobody’s going to think the team should bench you because you’re married, and nobody - well, almost nobody - is going to accuse you of sleeping your way into the Avengers. The whole world has seen you fighting aliens in high definition.”

“Yes, well everyone saw me fighting Hydra on the newsreels, too,” said Peggy, dryly. She sighed. “But, you’re right, at least it shouldn’t be the prominent theory.”

He leaned over and kissed her, just behind her ear. “And honestly, I kind of like the idea of everyone knowing how head over heels over you I am.”

“You’re a sap,” she said, although he could tell she was hiding a smile.

\-----  
**Day 40:**

_“...and, although neither has commented publicly, Captain Britain and Captain America have casually appeared in the background of each other’s video calls several times over the past two days, in an apparent quiet confirmation that they are, indeed, quarantined together.”_

_\- WHiH World News_

Steve passed Peggy the popcorn. “I think it’s going pretty well.”

She took a handful. “Mmm, yes, don’t go on Twitter.”

\-----  
**Day 43:**

_“…joined the StarkVirtual meeting from the same screen during the Avengers’ weekly press conference today, although they remained muted and did not take questions.”_

_\- WHiH World News_

“Interesting strategy, Carter-Rogers household,” said Maria Hill, once the press had been shut out and the team debriefing had begun. “Not sure it’s working.”

“It seems rather excessive to put out an announcement. We’re clearly together,” said Peggy. She shrugged. “I expect people will eventually lose interest, once the novelty wears off.”

Natasha grinned. “You do realize that you’re feeding into the perception that you two are shacked up in some sort of quarantine hookup, don't you? You couldn’t have fanned the flames more if you’d tried. People can’t look away from the potential train wreck.”

“But - why do they care?” asked Steve, exasperated. “Sure, it would have been a scandal back in the 40s, but these days I thought sex was - ”

Natasha shook her head. “People haven’t changed that much since the 40s, Rogers. You’re both ridiculously hot. Half the buzz is from people who are now super invested in your relationship. The other half are pissed off that you’ve just destroyed their hopes and dreams by taking each other off the market.”

Steve blinked. “We've been married since 1944.”

“Right,” said Maria. “But how the hell is anyone supposed to know that?”

\-----  
**Day 45:**

_“… and during an online Q and A session about World War II with a group of schoolchildren today, Captain America and Captain Britain revealed that they’ve been together since 1943. The couple explained that they kept their 1944 marriage a secret to avoid sidelining Captain Britain during the war, and still have the habit of trying to keep their private lives private.”_

_\- WHiH World News_

“I’m a little afraid to check the news,” said Peggy, wrapping her legs around Steve’s neck and squeezing, one foot slotted behind her other knee. Steve tucked his chin, wedged one hand into the tiny gap she'd left, and twisted out of her leg lock, pinning her beneath him on the bed. She thrust her hips upward to flip him over. “I suppose, in retrospect, it might have been better to be more open about our relationship once we’d arrived in this century, but what’s done is done. Darling, we’re about to fall off the bed. Reposition?”

“You’re probably right,” he said, wiggling himself back into the centre, Peggy shuffling along with him. “Ready?” She nodded and immediately went for an arm lock, which he countered by flipping her over his shoulder into the wall. “Shit! Sorry! Are you okay?”

Peggy sighed, pushing off the wall and flopping down beside him. “I’m fine, and thankfully so is the wall. But you were right. There wasn’t enough space for this.”

“One day we’ll have a house with a basement,” said Steve. “We’ll put in a gym. Reinforce the walls.” He tilted his head. “Maybe we should start looking, once we’re allowed outside. I think it might be nice to have a yard. That white picket fence we always talked about during the war. Everyone knows we’re together now anyway.”

She turned her face towards his and smiled. “Well, you’ve certainly learned how to sweet-talk a girl, soldier.”

“Turns out it’s easy once you find the right partner,” he said, and kissed her.

Peggy wrapped a leg around him. “I suppose, in the end,” she said, slowly, “it doesn’t matter what the public thinks about us, or whether our neighbours realize who we are. We know what we are to each other, and anyone else’s opinion doesn’t really matter.”

“And what's your opinion, Captain Britain?” he asked, his hands sliding into her shirt.

“My opinion,” she said, tugging him on top of her and letting out a little gasp, “is that there is, as it turns out, a certain advantage to grappling on the bed after all.”

\-----  
**Day 50:**

_“A 76-year marriage may be one of the more unusual secrets uncovered by the new merging of work life and home life, but it’s by far the only one. We’ll hear from Christine Everhart about the new etiquette around virtual meeting interruptions, right after this.”_

_\- WHiH World News_

“I think the buzz is finally dying down,” said Maria Hill, holding up her beer. Steve joined in her virtual toast, then set down his coffee cup and turned to the kitchen where Peggy was brewing a cup of tea. 

“See?” she called across the room. “We’re terribly boring.”

Natasha laughed as Liho, who seemed to enjoy these end-of-day social hours, hopped up onto the table in front of her, meowed once, and began daintily lapping water out of her dish. “Apparently being well past your diamond wedding anniversary makes you fall off the hotness radar a bit.”

“Good,” said Peggy, primly, sitting down next to Steve with her tea. “Although, if we’re counting the years we were in the ice, I’m a little surprised our ages didn’t put them off first.”

“Yeah well, I’m surprised your personalities didn’t put them off completely,” said Tony, toasting them cheerfully with his disturbingly forest-green smoothie.

Pepper sighed.

“Well,” said Peggy, holding up her tea. “Here’s to being boring.”

Maria held up her bottle. “Speaking of boring, congratulations on making it through 50 days of quarantine. I’d have made us a cake, but I’d have to eat it all myself and I don’t actually like cake all that much.”

“Oh come on, we all know Fury's got to be hiding in your apartment somewhere,” said Tony. “You can’t tell me he doesn’t eat cake.”

“Good God, has it really been that long?” asked Peggy, and Steve stifled a grin at the utterly astounded look on her face.

\-----  
**Day 52:**

_“TS: so you’re really going hard core in that plan to spice up your marriage with something new, huh? gotta say, respect where respect is due, pegs._

_PC: pardon me?_

_TS: saw your grocery order. steve’s going to pass out._

_PC: what the hell are you doing snooping around in our private grocery order?_

_TS: i built the drones that deliver it, of course i have access to the database._

_PC: that doesn’t even begin to answer my question, you ape_

_TS: calm down, it’s your groceries, not your social security number. which I also know, so actually, bad example, never mind._

_TS: ...did you seriously just text Pepper and ask her to slap me? what the hell, Carter?_

_PC: i can’t decide which is more disturbing - the idea that you regularly examine our grocery order, or the idea that you’d asked JARVIS to flag certain items. Either way, we only have one way to get things delivered right now, so butt the hell out, Stark._

_PC: and if you mention this to anyone, I shall punch you very, very hard.”_

_\- private text conversation between Iron Man and Captain Britain_

“Everything okay?” asked Steve. “You look like you want to punch somebody.”

Peggy looked up from her phone. "Oh, just Tony.”

"Mmm," said Steve, going back to his book.

\-----  
**Day 53:**

_“…and finally, meet Rufus, a terrier in Kansas City with an incredible talent for indoor parkour. Or, as his owners call it, barkour.”_

_\- WHiH World News_

“Grocery delivery’s here.” Steve took the parcel from the drone, then shut the kitchen window. He peered in. “Oh good, you remembered the milk.”

Peggy sat up on the couch, the marks on her cheek and the way she was blinking suggesting that she’d fallen asleep with her book. “I’ll help unpack,” she said, stumbling a bit groggily into the kitchen. She rifled through the bags, and Steve got the impression she was looking for something in particular. 

“What are you - ” he started to ask, and then broke off, startled, as he moved aside a loaf of bread and saw it. He stared at her. “Looking for this?”

“Yes,” she said, and took it out of his hand. They both examined it, as he mentally did the math. Oh.

“You’re really late,” he said.

She nodded. “Yes. I’d lost track of the days.”

They stared at each other.

“Are you okay?” he asked, finally. 

She nodded again. “Yes, I feel fine.” She looked down at the box in her hand. “I wasn’t going to say anything until I - ” she sighed. “Good God, this is a terrible cliché, Steve.”

Steve grinned. “Good time to be out of the field, though.”

She smiled at him, slowly. “Yes, it is, isn’t it?”

\-----

They stared at the two pink lines for a long moment, and then Peggy cleared her throat. She still looked slightly dazed, but underneath it was a fierce, almost luminous happiness. “Well,” she said.

Steve discovered that he had tears in his own eyes. “I know we both said we wanted this one day, but - I really wasn’t sure if we were ever going to slow down long enough to actually do it,” he said, pulling her into his arms.

“I wasn’t either,” she admitted, into his chest. “And I - I’m still not sure if it’s the best time to have a baby. But I - “ She exhaled. “I didn’t realize how badly I wanted it, until I saw that second pink line.”

Steve tightened his hold on her. “Peggy, people have babies in the middle of every kind of disaster. If everyone waited until the timing was perfect, humanity would be doomed. So I think what that means is that the timing is actually always right, as long as it feels right to the people who are having the baby. And it feels - it feels right to me.”

Peggy turned up her face to kiss him. “You're ridiculously good at these reassuring speeches, you know.”

“And, you did say we needed a new hobby,” Steve added, deadpan.

Peggy snorted. “Yes, well, we tried strip chess and look where that got us.” 

Steve laughed and, in a sudden burst of elation, lifted her up off her feet and kissed her again, hard. “God, I love you,” he said, and she laughed too.

“Well, darling, we’ve just had our 76th anniversary, I should certainly hope so.”

\-----  
**Day 98:**

_“…and finally, Avenger Captain Britain, briefly visible in profile in a reflection in a window behind her husband, Captain America, during a StarkVirtual meeting with a group of first responders this afternoon, appears to be sporting a small but noticeable baby bump. Is there a next generation supersoldier on the way?”_

_\- WHiH World News_

“Oh, _bloody hell!_ ”


End file.
